James Simmons has written a status update to the OpenChrome development list concerning his ongoing work towards enabling kernel mode-setting (KMS) support for VIA hardware with this community-maintained VIA Linux project.

James says that the Linux KMS support for his VIA work is basically done; all of the core code support is in place and VIA KMS is working over VGA. LVDS and other connectors aren't yet working in the VIA KMS world, but James says that it will be easier to do now that the core changes have been made.

Additionally, the OpenChrome X.Org driver still hasn't been updated to play well in a KMS world and to respect the mode-setting being done in the kernel. James right now is deciding whether or not to tackle the output support for other connectors or to first get the xf86-video-openchrome driver playing well.

James's brief status update can be found in this mailing list message. It looks like it will still be a few more Linux 3.x kernel releases before we could see the VIA KMS support merged into the mainline kernel.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 10,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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